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To the editor:
My family roots in Davie County go back to the 18th century, and I was raised to follow the teachings of Jesus. I continue to do my best to practice loving everyone, including those who do me harm; to forgive those who have hurt me; and to turn the other cheek. I was taught to be kind and considerate, to stand up for those who are bullied, help those who need help, and welcome the stranger. I took it seriously when Jesus said that how I treat the “least of thee” is how I “treat” Jesus. It made sense to me that we are all children of God, whose chosen Son came to earth to tell us the truth, the “truth shall set ye free”, and that to love others as we are loved was the most important of the Commandments.
As a US Navy veteran, I agreed to give my life for my country, in the service of others to protect and defend our US Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic. I read and remember the US Constitution clearly, and am hopeful that we will someday create the idealized American Dream where there is liberty and justice for all. While we can all agree we are not happy with some of the decisions made by our elected governments, we need to remember the purpose of our government is to provide for the common good. It is absolutely un-American and immoral for the government to interfere with a human being’s health care, and to deny lifesaving procedures when they are medically indicated. Despite running for and being elected President in 2016, holding that office for 4 years and again running to be elected, when asked about his health care plans for America, he admitted he only had “concepts of a plan”. That is dereliction of duty.
The First Amendment protects reporters from government interference because journalists research the truth and publish things that keep citizens informed so government will be held accountable. Social media, influencers, and politicians are not held to the ethical standards of journalists, and it is a serious threat to our freedoms when anyone tries to portray journalists as an “enemy of the people”. Disinformation is not protected speech, and the truth demands that lies be fact checked. The Second Amendment is not being attacked, but every election year the lie that Democrats want to take away guns gets resurrected and millions more guns are sold to fearful citizens who fell for that marketing scam. Most believe that felons should not own guns, but one of the candidates for President was convicted of 34 felony charges by a jury of peers. Laws must apply fairly to all or they must be changed. It is un-American to have one set of laws for the privileged and another set for the rest like in England’s 18th century.
Americans have a serious responsibility to be actively involved in government through contributions of ideas, voting, and protesting peacefully. To accuse members of the government, and specifically Democrats in leadership roles, of “being the enemy” is to abandon one’s civic responsibility to participate in the process. We are harming our fellow citizens and the peaceful, productive ability of our local, state, and federal government when we attack a political party and refuse to discuss issues and cooperate in the creation of solutions. Elected officials cannot serve the people who elected them when a party in office chooses to put partisan grandstanding above reaching across the aisle to work together for the welfare of the citizens. If a candidate cannot give the voters reason to look forward to positive changes instead of only attacking other people and lacking policy ideas while lying about how bad everything is now, that candidate is failing.
Military service professionals have a legal, moral, and ethical duty to disobey orders that are not lawful, and that is what Gen. John Kelly did when former President Trump wanted him to shoot peaceful protestors in DC. Now Trump is openly saying he wished he had generals like Hitler did, Hitler. Are you paying attention? I know we have Nazis and white nationalists among us, but I pray they are the tiniest minority. Trump has said he wants to replace his military advisors with NASCAR drivers because the “Generals are so stupid”, but wants you to believe he cares about those who choose to serve in the military.
America is a land of opportunity and prosperity; if it were not, refugees and immigrants would not try to move here. We live in a nation of modern comforts, freedoms, and rights, nota “third world country” or “trash can”. I have not heard about a single person who has been attacked, robbed, or raped on the way to buy groceries. No one is taking away our cows or bacon. The mayors of Springfield, Ohio and Aurora, Colo. repeatedly stated that there are no missing, devoured pets or geese, and no violent illegal immigrant gangs taking over. No undocumented person is getting FEMA money and n one will ever get a sex change operation at school. It is dangerous to let these insane claims fuel voting for or against anyone when these are clearly lies used to divide and conquer the American public. After the most devastating disaster in recorded history, our mountain neighbors have been further injured by the lies Trump told regarding FEMA. Sowing fear and distrust in times of hardship, instead of trying to inspire and lead people to come together and rebuild with support from others, including the safety net that is FEMA is simply a lack of leadership ability, extremely harmful and part of self-serving divisiveness.
Crime rates and unemployment in America are lower than they were four years ago. The stock market is at all-time record highs, and inflation has dropped to a reasonable level, but prices continue to be too high because of corporate greed and price gouging following Trump’s corporate tax cuts that never filtered down to the employees as advertised.
To blame undocumented immigrants for problems that do not exist, and paint a picture of doom and gloom to motivate people to vote against people who actually have plans to improve life in America is a twisted act of fraud and corruption. Trump is old and clearly having cognitive challenges during rallies, and that will get worse over time, not better. Whether or not Trump believes what he says is only part of the problem. Reporting things that have not been established as fact is unprofessional, unethical, and solely intended to manipulate crowds. Gossip is never helpful.
I am stunned and bewildered by fellow children of God who seem to have abandoned those values we learned from Jesus in a decision to see the world through a distorted and hateful lens. There is a truth that will set us free, and it is being drowned out by those who pretend to want to make America great through misogyny, religious and racial bigotry, homophobia, transphobia, conspiracy theories, and constant lying. We do not have open borders, and if you look at the facts you will see that border crossings are lower now than four years ago. We desperately need immigrants to do the many jobs American citizens will no longer do. This world is not divided by political parties where one is evil and one is making America great. Our planet and life here is a precious gift from our Divine Creator. Our fellow humans are our family. Even though we can agree some of our family members are not easy to like, we are all in this together and can do more by cooperating and trying to mend fences than we can by fighting one another.
Tariffs instituted during Trump’s Presidency almost destroyed family farms because China was our major trading partner and they retaliated against American farmers by not buying our agricultural products. When corporate farmers finally got Trump’s attention, his answer was a taxpayer funded bail out, which is not only unsustainable, but fails to help the family farmers. It was a bad idea when he could simply lift the tariffs, and try to improve relations with the “strong man leader” of China. Trump’s policy was like starting a fire in your house and walking next door and waiting until someone else calls the fire department. Farmer suicide rates in some areas became 3-5 times higher than the general public’s suicide rates, and there was no justice for them or their families.
There was a bipartisan, beneficial immigration policy answer to the border crisis, but Trump sabotaged it when he decided that he was more electable if he could continue blaming Biden for the border problems. Nothing will get better if a single person has the power to block progress and prevent cooperation for the good of the people. America is supposed to have 3 co-equal branches of government, Executive, Legislative, and Judicial to protect us from such a tyrant. With Biden no longer running for re-election, Trump may say that Vice President Harris is a “low IQ person” and “the worst Vice President in the history of America” but he has yet to say how he is going to fix the immigration crisis. The immigration law is under the Legislative Branch of government, not the Executive Branch, and partisan politics have stonewalled a workable immigration policy for decades. Trump’s wall did not work before because there are ladders, power tools, drones, tunnels, airplanes, etc. and Mexico is never paying for a wall between our countries. Biden’s stay out policy is working.
I humbly ask that you take time to get the facts, and if you do, you will know that Trump’s own administration, aids, advisors, children, and FOX News told him he lost the election. Trump intentionally started the lie that the election was stolen, demonized anyone who disagreed, and encouraged his followers to violently attack our US Capitol in a vain attempt to prevent the peaceful transfer of power, threatening to hang VP Mike Pence, and violently attack our law enforcement officers protecting the Capitol and its inhabitants, killing several officers and brutally injuring others. One cannot support and value Law Enforcement while also being willing to injure and kill members of the law enforcement risking their lives doing their job. Once cannot really love America and support a candidate who openly committed treason to overthrow the fair and legal election of his political opponent. Honestly, if you think things are better in Hungary or Russia, please move there instead of electing someone to destroy our government and Constitutional rights and freedom.
I am not asking you to vote against your conscience, I am asking you to vote for anyone you believe wants to make positive changes in our county, state, and federal government. I am asking you to reconsider voting for anyone who demonizes others, tell lies to keep people angry and afraid, plans to exact vengeance using political power instead of upholding the US Constitution and protecting our democratic republic. Please exercise your commitment to the truth and our American nation above party. The MAGA party is not the Republican Party, and that is why so many prominent lifelong Republicans are publicly supporting Kamala Harris for President, and Mike Pence is not up for re-election.
Bonnie Clark
Harmony